Kirsten Shepherd
@kirstensb.bsky.social
📤 27
đź“Ą 22
đź“ť 51
LitHits founder and co-curator, professor, reader, writer.
'Ring in the thousand years of peace'
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'Ring in the thousand years of peace'
The coming of the new year brings thoughts of the future––and past futures...
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/ring-in-the-thousand-years-of-peace?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
2 days ago
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The contest of the Holly and the Ivy
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The contest of the Holly and the Ivy
Evergreens vie for dominance in this medieval carol
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/the-contest-of-the-holly-and-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
8 days ago
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Home for the Holidays
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Home for the Holidays
O. Henry's 1899 short story about American frontiersmen preparing for Christmas Day takes an unexpected and characteristically hilarious turn
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/home-for-the-holidays?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
22 days ago
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Leaving the doll's house
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Leaving the doll's house
The final lines of Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House stunned its first audiences--and it still has the power to shock us
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/leaving-the-dolls-house?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
29 days ago
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Fate strikes on 'the Tube'
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Fate strikes on 'the Tube'
A flirtatious and clandestine meeting on the subway--from over a century ago...
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/fate-strikes-on-the-tube?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
about 2 months ago
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Thrilled to announce that I have a new book out with OUP this week, with co-editor Tzen Sam and translator Gaye Kynoch. It tells the true story of how Ibsen's A Doll's House came about, and the real woman--Laura Kieler, author and playwright--who inspired it:
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
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https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-dolls-house-men-of-honour-when-we-dead-awaken-9780198955092?type=listing&lang=en&cc=gb#
about 2 months ago
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www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/jrf-in-human...
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JRF in Humanities - closing date 14 November - St Catherine's College
St Catherine’s College proposes to elect a Junior Research Fellow in the Humanities. The Fellowship will be tenable for up...
https://www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/jrf-in-humanities-closing-date-14-november/
2 months ago
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A taste of Saki...the brilliant short story writer whose tale of 'Sredni Vashtar' will haunt you
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The grisly fate of Mrs. De Ropp
A young boy finds a fiendish way to silence his harshly oppressive guardian
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/the-grisly-fate-of-mrs-de-ropp?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
2 months ago
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Shakespeare's St Crispin's Day speech (set on October 25!)
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St Crispin's Day
A king rallies his outnumbered troops at the Battle of Agincourt
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/st-crispins-day?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
2 months ago
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'Recovering Laura Kieler--The Real Woman behind Ibsen's A Doll's House' -- Univ of Birmingham, Oct 29, 1.30-3pm, Arts Building 103 (Constance Naden Room – 1st fl). Please join us!
www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/un...
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https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/university/edgbaston-campus-map.pdf
2 months ago
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Headless Horseman
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Headless Hessian Horseman
German soldiers were hired by the British to fight in the American revolutionary war. Here's a snippet of a story about an undead one.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/headless-hessian-horseman?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
3 months ago
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What is an animal character?
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What is an animal character?
A brutal incident seen from the perspective of a colt
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/what-is-an-animal-character?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
3 months ago
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'Spicy woods' of October
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'Spicy woods'
Following on from our earlier newsletter featuring her poem 'August,' here is Helen Hunt Jackson's ravishing tribute to October
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/spicy-woods?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
3 months ago
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New LitHits newsletter just out:
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Silent tears of recognition...
In a twist on Classical myth, the musician Orpheus is reimagined as a King of Winchester in this medieval Breton 'lai', a short narrative poem of adventure
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/silent-tears-of-recognition?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
3 months ago
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'But thy eternal summer shall not fade'
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'But thy eternal summer shall not fade'
A classic love poem that invites multiple interpretations
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/but-thy-eternal-summer-shall-not?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
4 months ago
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On (not) becoming a poet
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On (not) becoming a poet
This week we feature James Weldon Johnson's deeply personal 'A Poet to his Baby Son'
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/on-not-becoming-a-poet?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
4 months ago
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A mind-blowing first day of school
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A mind-blowing first day of school
This longer read from a 1916 children's classic captures the anxiety and thrill of the first day of school--and unveils some new and startling ideas about education
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-mind-blowing-first-day-of-school?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
4 months ago
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Ode to a brilliant scientist and her 'humane war'
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Ode to a brilliant scientist and her 'humane war'
A woman poet hails a woman scientist
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/ode-to-a-brilliant-scientist-and?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
4 months ago
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The magic of water
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The magic of water
From the LitHits archives: the opening paragraphs of Moby-Dick
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/the-magic-of-water?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
4 months ago
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The magic of water
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The magic of water
From the LitHits archives: the opening paragraphs of Moby-Dick
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/the-magic-of-water?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
4 months ago
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One poem, many interpretations...
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One poem, many interpretations...
Robert Frost's much loved poem has meant different things to different people
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/one-poem-many-interpretations?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
5 months ago
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'August' by Helen Hunt Jackson
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'August' by Helen Hunt Jackson
A sonnet to the 'middle-aged' month by a poet and friend of Emily Dickinson
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/august-by-helen-hunt-jackson?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
5 months ago
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From our archives: The air carries little creatures
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From our archives: The air carries little creatures
As thoughts turn to summer travel, we come back to Exeter Book Riddle 57 (in translation, followed by the original text). Have another go at this enigmatic medieval puzzle!
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/the-air-carries-little-creatures-260?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
5 months ago
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The primerole and the violet
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The primerole and the violet
This enigmatic lyric from the fourteenth-century (with modernised spelling) resists easy interpretation. It is a balladlike song about an unknown Maiden, once sung to a now-lost tune.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/the-primerole-and-the-violet?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
5 months ago
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A road trip, kinda
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A road trip, kinda
Willa Cather's literary postcard from a journey to the American Southwest
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-road-trip-kinda?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
6 months ago
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Cool temperatures...and crabs!
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Crabs!
Notes from a real South Pole expedition detail an unexpected hazard on the way down to the Antarctic
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/crabs?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
6 months ago
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A chestnut gets stuck in an inconvenient place...
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A chestnut gets stuck in an inconvenient place...
Ouch! Laurence Sterne entertains and embarrasses us in equal measure
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-chestnut-gets-stuck-in-an-inconvenient?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
6 months ago
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Just in case you missed Bloomsday...
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Bloomsday: 'aquacities of thought'
This week, readers around the world marked June 16––the day James Joyce's Ulysses is set--with marathon readings of the novel. Here, we give you a taste of its audacious inventiveness
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/bloomsday-aquacities-of-thought?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
7 months ago
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Navigating nonsense
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Navigating nonsense
In this absurd tale of adventure on the high seas, the only map available is a 'perfect and absolute blank'
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/navigating-nonsense?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
7 months ago
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'As if my brain had split'
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'As if my brain had split'
A short poem on what emotional upheavals feel like in the head
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/as-if-my-brain-had-split?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
7 months ago
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Master-mistress of my passion
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Master-mistress of my passion
The seductive gender fluidity of Shakespeare's Sonnet 20
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/master-mistress-of-my-passion?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
7 months ago
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When the weather is so nice, but you have to study for exams...
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When the weather is so nice, but you have to study for exams...
Christopher Robin's approach might be just the thing
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/when-the-weather-is-so-nice-but-you?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
8 months ago
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Florence Nightingale and Mrs Dalloway
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Florence Nightingale and Mrs Dalloway
This week we mark International Nurses Day with an excerpt from a speech by Ur-nurse Florence Nightingale. We also celebrate the 100th birthday of Virginia Woolf's influential novel.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/florence-nightingale-and-mrs-dalloway?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
8 months ago
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'A live coal in the sea'
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'A live coal in the sea'
Can sins be redeemed? In this late medieval dream vision, personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins attend Confession, guided by Reason and Repentance--but are their confessions sincere?
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-live-coal-in-the-sea?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
8 months ago
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'If eyes were made for seeing...'
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'If eyes were made for seeing...'
This poem records a moment in May when the poet spots a rhododendron blossoming, heralding spring in all its glory and prompting some unforgettable musings on the nature and purpose of beauty
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/if-eyes-were-made-for-seeing?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
8 months ago
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A triumph of 'genius and audacity'
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A triumph of 'genius and audacity'
An American story about a clever and resourceful woman who improves her family's living arrangements
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-triumph-of-genius-and-audacity?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
8 months ago
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Hurrah for 'dappled things'
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Hurrah for 'dappled things'
Gerard Manley Hopkins pays tribute to the speckled, the spotted, the stippled, and the mottled...just the thing if you've ever bemoaned your freckles
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/hurrah-for-dappled-things?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
9 months ago
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A truly superior lake
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A truly superior lake
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft's poem is a lyrical exploration of a body of water that is bigger than Austria (and almost as big as Portugal!)
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-truly-superior-lake?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
9 months ago
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Frederick Douglass once wrote: 'for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.'
9 months ago
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A spooky doll, a mysterious palace...
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A spooky doll, a mysterious palace...
In Vernon Lee's unnerving story, a woman, guided by a man called Orestes, turns up at an old Italian palace, looking to acquire some of its famed antiques....
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-spooky-doll-a-mysterious-palace?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
9 months ago
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Language tricks
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Language tricks
Frederick Douglass, Percival Everett, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins have all radically reimagined how enslaved people in America might have spoken
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/language-tricks?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
10 months ago
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Spring approaches!
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Spring approaches!
In this light-hearted poem, March is (literally) at the door
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/spring-approaches?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
10 months ago
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A true sense of place
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A true sense of place
Can you guess the setting of this short story from its evocative opening lines?
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/a-true-sense-of-place?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
10 months ago
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A brilliant 18th-century sonnet by Charlotte Smith
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Questioning others' words of caution
Charlotte Smith's compassionate sonnet from 1784 daringly questions the advice and prejudices of others about 'madness'
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/questioning-others-words-of-caution?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
11 months ago
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So much depends upon... an image!
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So much depends upon... an image!
Imagists used stark, unadorned, and direct language to represent the objects of their poetry
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/so-much-depends-upon-an-image?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
11 months ago
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Very short read: 'Looking Out in New York'
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Looking Out in New York
Edith Wharton's first published short story features a mysterious figure who prizes her view of the city...
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/looking-out-in-new-york?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
11 months ago
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LitFlash: 'Creative tension'
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LitFlash: 'Creative tension'
In the week commemorating his birthday, we celebrate the enduring wisdom, eloquence, and compassion of Martin Luther King, Jr.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/litflash-creative-tension?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
11 months ago
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LitFlash: 'The dying of the light'
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LitFlash: 'The dying of the light'
This week we offer a powerful and rousing poetic meditation on death.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/litflash-the-dying-of-the-light?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
12 months ago
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SLEEP!
lithits.substack.com/p/blessed-ba...
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'Blessed barrier between day and day'
Sleep! If only it were that easy...here are two works that capture both the beauty of sleep and the nightmare of insomnia
https://lithits.substack.com/p/blessed-barrier-between-day-and-day
12 months ago
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Happy New Year of Free Books!
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Happy New Year of Free Books!
On 1 January 2025, thousands of works from 1929 entered the public domain in the US. Here are just a few of the riches you can enjoy in a bumper year of free great reads
https://open.substack.com/pub/lithits/p/happy-new-year-of-free-books?r=1w3tdq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
about 1 year ago
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